Iwatani Corporation (Head Office: Osaka and Tokyo, President: Masao Nomura, Capital: 20 billion yen) announces that it will enter the household electricity market to capitalize on the general liberalization of electricity retail sales in April 2016. It will start in the Kanto and Tokyo Metropolitan Area where competition is expected to become especially intense.

Iwatani Corporation, which provides LPG to 3,100,000 households nationwide through the brand MaruiGas, the largest brand of LPG for household and commercial consumption in Japan, has recently filed an application with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to register as an electricity retailer and begin the sales of electricity aimed predominantly at existing LPG customers. Sales will be conducted through two LPG sales companies, both of which are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Iwatani Corporation.
An outline of Iwatani Corporation’s entry into the household electricity business is as follows:

Target areas

:

Kanto and Tokyo Metropolitan Area (Service area of Tokyo Electric Power Company is considered)

After being registered as retailers, the two operating companies will prepare a broad selection of services to help promote the sales of electricity. These services, which include bundled sales of LPG and electricity, will be sold directly to clients. In addition, Iwatani Corporation will seek to improve services for existing customers and win new customers through its group-wide efforts, pushing forward with the electricity business with an eye on the possibility of collaborating in wide range of business areas with Kanden Energy Solution Co., Inc., a member of Kansai Electric Power Group.